Details about condition of bodies still under wraps; ditch near Bremer County park draws searchers' interest

Dec. 6, 2012

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Investigators on Thursday work in a taped-off area in the Seven Bridges Wildlife Area in Bremer County, where hunters found two bodies the day before. The remains were taken Wednesday afternoon to the state medical examiner's office in Ankeny for identification. Jim Slosiarek/cedar rapids Gazette-KCRG / Jim Slosiarek/Cedar Rapids Gazette-KCRG

READLYN, IA. — Law enforcement officials Thursday scoured a secluded, heavily wooded area for evidence that could unravel the mystery behind the disappearance and deaths of two Iowa cousins whose bodies were found here.

Hunters in the Seven Bridges Wildlife Area, a 125-acre Bremer County park, discovered the bodies around 12:45 p.m. Wednesday, authorities said. The park is about 25 miles north of Evansdale, the Black Hawk County community where Lyric Cook-Morrissey, then 10, and Elizabeth Collins, then 8, were last seen on July 13.

The wildlife area will be closed to the public until at least Monday to allow crime scene technicians and law officers to continue to look for evidence, said Capt. Rick Abben of the Black Hawk County sheriff’s office.

It’s unclear if the area where the girls were found had been searched by police, Abben said. Authorities asked sheriff’s departments in surrounding counties to search parks, but the wildlife area was isolated from major roads, he said.

Abben declined to say whether the bodies had been buried or concealed in any way. Other details about the condition of the bodies remain undisclosed.

Local, state and federal police zipped in and out of the park on a gravel road much of the day Thursday. An Iowa state medical examiner’s SUV entered the park in the morning.

Two white sheets were visible in long grass between a bend in a gravel road and a wooded area, not far from some water, aerial photographs by the Cedar Rapids Gazette showed. What appeared to be crime scene tape surrounded the area with the white sheets.

Law enforcement officers spent much of the morning searching ditches along a road about a half-mile west of the wildlife area’s entrance. A cold, steady drizzle began falling around 11 a.m. as authorities searched the roadside. Officers also placed small yellow flags in spots in the ditch, which runs along 270th Street near the park’s entrance.

The wildlife area is popular with hunters in the fall, fishers in the summer and mushroom hunters in the spring, said Frank Frederick, director of the Bremer County Conservation Board.

The park has canoe access to the Wapsipinicon River, which winds through it.

Not as many people fished in the area this summer because of low water levels, Frederick said. His office doesn’t track the number of visitors to the area, which has no electricity or running water, he said.